The AncientBiotics Project

Just because recently I was so much into antibiotics on this page, here is a fascinating story about a research team from Nottingham which rebrewed a thousand-year-old recipe from medieval sources and found the substance to be highly effective against MRSA, a bacterium which is largely resistant to common antibiotic treatments. Usually I’m not a big fan of interdisciplinary research projects, as they are too often only a straw man, but these results are, as the researchers themselves put it, “absolutely astonishing”.

The fact that all ingredients alone, such as onion, garlic, and alcohol, show only a mild impact on bacteria growth but develop their true potential in the exact combination discovered in the 10th century puts into perspective theories (which were recently discussed elsewhere) that deny the medieval population the ability to make use of experimentation and the scientific method. In general, a lack of breakthrough inventions in science did not seem to be the problem throughout human history. It’s just hard to understand why such an invaluable knowledge like the invention of effective antibiotic treatments did not have a larger impact and spread to a wider geographical area. This channel of knowledge spillovers, the “standing on shoulders of giants” part of science, seems to have only opened up in modern times.